I’ve made a google doc with the current and ideal BOM of the mvp. Let me know if you see any changes I need to make with the ideal BOM, especially nutrient and electronics-wise.
The last of the electronics should be coming in the mail wednesday, so I will have updated pictures a day or two after that.

Here is the github link for the software stack put together by @webbhm. We plan to install this software onto the initial prototype and then will build another from the ground up and document that process once we’ve really finalized our design. Thanks to everyone who has participated and helped out with this project so far.

As a warning: there will be quite a few changes between this and even the “beta” release (about 2 weeks away). We are hoping to make the reservoir aeroponic, and I’m sure will make quite a few improvements in the coming weeks. That being said, I do feel confident that the frame/enclosure/lighting will remain the same, if you’re eager to build alongside I would suggest starting there.

We also found a great hack to improve our lighting intensity using regular off the shelf bulbs. We “hacked” off the tip of the GE Bright Stik with a saw to remove the light diffuser which was causing the bulb to distribute the light differently. These bulbs are essentially a large heatsink, with COB LED’s mounted to it facing downward. These bulbs are intended for people, and we don’t want to be blinded when we look up, lucky for us, plants don’t care. We have done tests and at the top of the bus tub there are 210 μmol m-2 s-1, before we modified the bulbs that number was 160 μmol m-2 s-1 (lettuce requires 200-250).

@drewthomas89 has built one that we are getting the software loaded to now (There are some pics on the MVP - Product Design thread). I know @nav has the software running, and @webbhm will be starting his build next week.

I hope to get two more people building them here locally as well, we will definitely be making some improvements. I hope to stick with our timeline and have a beta release ready by next week with a more thorough BOM and a simpler hardware/software setup.

I may not have the aeroponics system done in time for it to be a part of the initial release. Which is OK though because I plan for that system to be usable in either the PFC V2 or the MVP.

@melanieshimano I would love to somehow incorporate curriculum into the MVP project. I feel like right now documentation for the PFC is great for building it, but when it comes time to operating the machine there is almost no information. Having a guide that has students grow say buttercrunch lettuce and then at 3 days it explains germination, at 5 days you talk about seedlings and lifecycles, etc. I know you’ve done similar work developing curriculum for your PFC’s and would love to try and “open source” that to get it available to more teachers so they see the value clearer.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently; this project is far from dead, we’ve just been working on it internally for some time.

We have the hardware and software working flawlessly now. If you were having troubles before, the most recent update of the software should be bug free.

I have been growing a tomato plant and a cucumber plant with a soil growing media all this time, as well as germinating some romaine lettuce in rockwool. I’ll post a pic of the current growing progress, and now I’ll finally be switching the plants over to the hydroponic system.